Quick Video Card question

[Minicoin]

I have a couple of AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series cards.  Each running on PCI Express 2.0 x8, which I could have sworn when I purchased them they would be doing x16 but I digress. 
I have them linked together but with GUIMiner I have not been able to get it to see them as one card.  So instead I created a couple of workers and assigned one to each card, which has worked so far.  The highest I get out of my current set up is 395-399 MHash/s.  But the questions I have:

1) Is there anything I could do to get GUIMiner to see them as one? 

2) Is there an advantage to getting them to work as one or is my current set up better?

3) Is there anything I can do to make this work any faster?  I saw the initial hardware recommendations and I was expecting more around 450+ Mhash/s.  I am not sure why I am not getting the full speed I should be getting.  The machine is brand new and being cooled relatively well and only runs GuiMiner, nothing else but an occasional browser session.


Thanks for any input!

MiniC

[degart]

Exactly what model 7700 ? My 7950 go with 570 MH  in solo mode in GUIMiner. In 2pool and BFG Miner about 530 Mh.

What is your motherboard?

[Minicoin]

Exactly what model 7700 ? My 7950 go with 570 MH  in solo mode in GUIMiner. In 2pool and BFG Miner about 530 Mh.

Sapphire 1GB GDDR5 HD 7770 GHZ Edition  Radeon AMD

Weird, looking at the box it does say PCIe 3.0 
Motherboard is a MSI 970A-G46 with Crossfire support on 2 PCIe 2.0 x 16

[Bitsaurus]

If you're getting 395MH/s from 2 7770s you're doing well.

Spend your time picking a better pool or reading on how BTC works

[degart]

exactly cheers  I recommended p2pool (without fees for pool)

If you're getting 395MH/s from 2 7770s you're doing well.

Spend your time picking a better pool or reading on how BTC works

[Minicoin]

BTW, this setup didn't bother me so much before.... before the crash/hack I was consistently getting .001, .002 per block which is slow but hey, wasn't expecting much... After the crash/hack, I am averaging .0005, .0007, etc.  And my MHash/s went down just slightly from 397 average to around 388... No idea why and it's annoying me now.

MiniC

[Bitsaurus]

BTW, this setup didn't bother me so much before.... before the crash/hack I was consistently getting .001, .002 per block which is slow but hey, wasn't expecting much... After the crash/hack, I am averaging .0005, .0007, etc.  And my MHash/s went down just slightly from 397 average to around 388... No idea why and it's annoying me now.

MiniC

I assume you're talking about the $266 BTC price crash?  That has nothing to do with earning.  The mining difficulty went up since then and again went up again today.  Each time difficulty goes up earnings will go down.

As far as MH/s change, sometimes changes on your machine can do that like changing resolution.

[Minicoin]

Sorry, no I meant the attack on Slush's pool.  After the attack my earnings were no longer matching my average from before.  And for some reason my MHash lowered just slightly.

So if I should be happy with what I am getting out of these 2 Radeon 7770's... which I am not really.... what card should I be looking to upgrade to in order to increase my gains?
The way I see it now, it will be way beyond a month before I see a full BTC.  Not really as slow as I expected on a brand new PC specifically built for mining. 

MiniC

[Minicoin]

OK,
After reading other threads on the subject here I have come to the conclusion that my setup is not at all bad after all and that I am getting the best I can out of the cards.
Thank you all that responded to my questions
I will just have to keep an eye out for other cards that can squeeze a little more for me in the future and maybe put these cards on my gaming PC instead.

 MiniC